College Volleyball: Jacks finish season with loss to Gators

ARCATA -- In the last game of the season, Humboldt State could not gain enough momentum to take down San Francisco State and fell 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 25-22) to the visiting Gators Saturday night.

The Jacks finish the season at 3-26 overall and 1-21 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. With the win, San Francisco State concludes their regular season at 21-8 overall, 16-6 in the CCAA.

Fitting for their last collegiate performances, Alexa Rosendale and Allison Drobish led the Jacks in hitting percentages, finishing the night at .289 and .214, respectively. Rosendale picked up a match-high 17 kills and 10 digs to grab her 15th double-double of the season. Rosendale, along with Kelci Renshaw, also put down four aces for the Jacks. Tiffany McCray registered a match-high 14 digs defensively to try to keep her team alive.

Two Gators finished the night with double-digit kills, led by Jazmine Williams, who caught fire in the first set and stayed hot to finish the night with a .739 attack percentage off a 17-for-23 performance, committing zero errors. Meagan Wright ended the night with 12 kills, while Megan Johnson led SFSU's defensive effort with 12 digs.

In the opening set, an attack error by Wright put the Jacks on the board first, but the Gators made up for the early mistake in the next play with a kill by Kelly Ostello. Although HSU jumped out in front 4-2, SFSU answered right back with two unanswered kills.

Tied at 4-4, Rosendale sent a kill down off a pass from McCray to put HSU back in the lead at 5-4. Humboldt State took control of the court as Danielle Carlson, Drobish, Rosendale, Merry Ellen Ackema and Channel Washington contributed one kill a piece to put HSU up 12-8.

San Francisco State called a timeout to slow down the game and came back determined to overtake the Jacks. Humboldt State was able to maintain the lead, though, until costly errors at the end of the set put momentum in the Gators' favor.

Tied at 22-22, Washington sent a kill down bringing the score to 23-22 and an attack error on Wright in the following play put HSU within one point of winning the first set. The Jacks were unable to get the job done, however, as SFSU went on a four-point run to grab the first set 26-24.

Working off momentum gained after the first-set win, the Gators started the second set with a 3-0 lead. A kill by Rosendale, off a pass from Renshaw, put the Jacks on the board, but SFSU went on another three-point run to push HSU back 6-1.

The Gators took advantage of the court and saw their lead quickly increase. Down 12 points with the score of 22-10, the Jacks dug deep and went on a four-point run to bring the score to 22-14. A kill by Rosendall and two service aces by Renshaw closed the gap even more, but it wasn't enough as Wright put a kill down for the Gators ending the set in their favor, 25-18.

In the third set, Humboldt State quickly fell behind the Gators once again, surrendering an early 4-0. The Jacks battled with SFSU to close the gap and tied the game at 7-7 off a kill by Washington. Later in the set, Humboldt State allowed the Gators to go on multiple scoring runs that kept the Jacks behind the visiting squad.

Determined to not go down without a fight, HSU worked to tie the score at 22-22, and despite finishing the set with a .406 hitting percentage, the Jacks could not gain enough momentum to push past San Francisco State, falling 25-22 in their last set of the year.